Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2024
This week's election: Croatia Parliamentary Election
AP News
Election Date: 17/04/2023
The ballot will pit the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) led by incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic against an alliance of centrist and left-wing parties informally led by populist President Zoran Milanovic and his Social Democratic Party (SDP). There have been heated exchanges between the country’s top officials in the lead-up to this election. It is sparking a potential political crisis in the Balkan country that belongs to both the European Union and NATO.
#Conflicts
USA Today
False: Image shows explosions in the Israeli sky during the April 13 Iran attack.
The photo in the Facebook post was taken in Ashkelon, Israel, on Aug. 21, 2020, and published by Reuters. The caption says the image shows Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepting rockets launched from Gaza. The photo does not depict the air attack on Israel by Iran on April 13.
Reuters
False: There is evidence of a terrorist motive in the Sydney knife attack.
The police have stated there is no evidence at the time of writing that a specific terrorist ideology motivated a man who fatally stabbed six people and injured 12 in a mall in Sydney’s beachside suburb of Bondi on Saturday. The attacker was a 40-year-old man from Queensland with a history of mental illness.
Full Fact
False: Footage shows panicked Israeli citizens running and screaming during Iran's recent airstrike.
A viral video is being shared with the claim it shows panic in Israel during Iran’s recent drone and missile attack. But, the footage shows scenes in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires. The people in the video are fans of the British singer Louis Tomlinson and gathered outside his hotel in Buenos Aires.
#Politics
PolitiFact
False: 326,000 migrants were flown to Florida with taxpayer dollars under President Joe Biden’s secret migrant flight program.
A parole program for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela requires that they pay for their own flights to the U.S. Information about the program has been publicly available since the program began in October 2022. Learn more about PolitiFact’s fact-checking process and rating system.
PolitiFact
False: New York Judge told former President Donald Trump on the first day of his hush-money case that he cannot attend his son Barron’s May 17 high school graduation.
The judge said on Monday that he was not prepared to rule on a request from Trump’s lawyers that the court be adjourned on May 17 so that Trump can attend the ceremony. He said his decision will depend on how the trial proceeds.
#Healthcare
Full Fact
False: 620,000 more people were waiting for NHS elective care in January compared to when Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister in late 2022.
The 620,000 figure refers to the number of cases, not people, and doesn’t account for some missing data. As of January 2024, there were around 300,000 more individual people in England waiting and 360,000 more cases than in October 2022.
Factcheck.afp
Mostly False: Joe Biden's open border policies are bringing tuberculosis to the US.
Tuberculosis (TB) cases in the United States have increased every year since 2020, but posts linking the uptick solely to illegal immigration are misleading. Changes to international travel and migration are among several contributing factors the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified, as well as rising TB worldwide and under-resourced prevention programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
#Economy
PolitiFact
True: The United States is one of only about half a dozen countries, without any guarantee of paid leave for new parents and/or other health care needs.
The U.S. requires 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year for parents of newborn or newly adopted children if the parents work for a company with 50 or more employees. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted mandatory paid family leave systems. Eight other states have voluntary systems that provide paid family leave through private insurance. These policies apply to individual states and the District of Columbia – not to the U.S. as a whole.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: Dansk landbrug har reduceret CO2-udledningen med en million tons.
Arlas landmænd har reduceret CO2-udledningen med en million tons på to år, viser Arlas seneste årsrapport. Danske landmænd har ikke reduceret udledningen med en million tons på to år, som de danske demokrater påstår. Tallet dækker Arlas landmænd i syv europæiske lande.
#Other
AAP
False: Canadians could soon be jailed for life if they offend someone on the internet under proposed legislation.
A social media video claims Canadians will be jailed for life for misgendering someone or disagreeing with the tenets of Islam, under proposed laws to tackle online harms. This is false. It’s based on a misreading of Bill C-63, which, among other things, seeks to provide protections against hate crimes and child sexual abuse material.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Muhammad Ali's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is on a Wall So People Can't Step on His Name.
Due to the reverence the name "Muhammad" has in Islam, Muhammad Ali's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is on a wall. This is to prevent people from stepping on the name "Muhammad."
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